


Submission Hold

by ClothesBeam



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: M/M, Turtlecest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 21:00:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14065479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClothesBeam/pseuds/ClothesBeam
Summary: As the most accustomed to getting up in other people’s business during a fight, Mikey has been tasked with figuring out why Raph performs so poorly when they train ground fighting. Specifically, why he's still immature enough to storm off after someone gets him into a submission. But maybe it isn't quite what it seems...





	Submission Hold

The lair was quiet, for once. Leo and Donny had gone on patrol, and Sensei had gone with them since the whole point of this exercise was to make Raph open up about what was wrong. And he wasn’t likely to do that while anyone else was in hearing range. So, in an unusual twist, they had the dojo entirely to themselves.

“So…” Mikey began. He was sitting at a ninety degree angle to his brother with his legs casually splayed. If treating this in a formal lesson was going to work, Leo would have made it happen already.

Raph was clearly on the defensive already. His arms and legs were crossed and his chin was tilted down slightly. He was glaring at the back wall of the dojo rather than at Mikey, though. So that was… not quite as bad as it could be. Mikey wiggled his toes against the worn tatami as he thought about where they should begin. But Raph beat him to the punch.

“How about we skip past the part where you ask me what’s wrong and I say nothing, we train a bit and I’m not really into it, but then the next time we get into a fight we all see I can do it when it really matters and we all realise this is a non-issue?” Raph suggested gruffly.

Well, ok, he had been going to use a comic storyline as inspiration for how to deal with this. But given his overall preference for higher brow reading material, it wasn’t really surprising that Raph knew more about tropes and narrative structure than him.

“I was thinking more we train a bit, I realise what’s got your knickers in a knot, and then we fix whatever that mental block is so you can actually use your time in the dojo to improve your performance in the field.”

Raph rolled his eyes and got to his feet. Not entirely sure of his intentions, Mikey quickly stood as well. “Or, how about I show you it’s not even that important anyway because you can’t get me to the ground to begin with?”

“What, you think the Battle Nexus Champion can’t take a fight to the ground when he wants to?” Mikey teased as he brought his hands up and adopted a ready stance with his left foot forward. He started searching for an opening.

“Maybe ten years ago, old man. With your training regimen these days, you must be retired.”

“For you, Raph? I don’t need it,” Mikey taunted in return. Sure, maybe he’d lost a little flexibility once he’d finished growing, but Leo still worked them as hard as Sensei used to.

Mikey shuffled in and out, reaching out then immediately drawing his hand back to his body a few times, both testing and trying to distract his brother. Mikey pretended to start up another round of fakes, but charged in on the end of his first attempt at a grab instead of the second or third like Raph might have expected.

Before Mikey could get to safety, that was, close enough for their plastrons to be pressed together, Raph had stepped out the way and directed Mikey’s momentum into the ground. He sprawled dramatically, pretending he’d let him get away with it on purpose.

“Quick Raph, now’s your chance!” he exclaimed dramatically.

“To what, kick you in the ribs?” he retorted. “Your side is wide open.”

“Is it?” Mikey asked, the challenge evident in his tone.

Raph’s mouth tightened, but he couldn’t not retaliate. Mikey had perfected the art of annoying him just by talking long ago, of course.

As promised, a foot came at his exposed side, but now that he was expecting trickery, Raph kept his weight on his back leg so he couldn’t be pulled off balance too easily. Mikey took hold of the foot coming at him and tucked it under his arm anyway. It’d come in useful in a moment.

“Ooh, bad move. You should’ve just left the ring while you had the chance.”

“Finding some rocks to throw at you instead probably would have made life easier,” Raph conceded.

Rather than try to pull away, he dove forward aggressively, shoving his heel against Mikey’s solar plexus. It wouldn’t exactly feel great for a human, but his plastron took the edge off the otherwise cruel move.

Mikey threw his right hip up and curled onto his side in an attempt to escape the pressure so he could get into a better position to retaliate, but Raph just replaced his foot with his knee instead. He grabbed Mikey’s carapace near the left side of his neck and near his right hip, pushing him back onto his back as he went. Mikey struggled to get out again, but Raph had much better balance and control over him this time. Mikey stopped to rest, not wanting to tire himself out trying to do something futile.

Raph took the opportunity to move into a mount, now sitting on Mikey’s stomach with his knees pressing into his sides. Mikey brought his arms up to protect his head from punches, but Raph seemed to think he’d made his point already.

Still, Mikey certainly hadn’t made his.

“What’d I say? Straight to the ground.”

“Yeah, and straight to losing,” Raph retorted.

“Aw come on, you know I’m only just getting started.”

Mikey’s hands shot forward. Raph deflected the one going for his middle, but he should’ve been more worried about the other hand.

“Pfft, what the fuck?” Raph demanded, trying to keep a straight face while Mikey mercilessly tickled his side.

He tried to clamp his upper arm down on his hand to both protect his side and prevent Mikey’s hand from moving any further, but his weight and grip had already shifted. Mikey instantly took his chance to flip them over, pushing Raph onto his front before flattening him to the ground by lying on his shell and wrapping his legs around him. Rather than going for a choke straight away, Mikey continued to intermittently tickle his sides.

Raph, of course, tried to use his superior size and weight to dislodge him quickly, but there was no way Mikey was going to let that happen now.

“God damn it Mikey, stop being so childish and fight properly!”

“If I can win by _tickling_ you, I think you have the problem here, not me!” Mikey replied with a wide smile.

Though Raph wasn’t the type to laugh out loud in this situation, his muscle spasms in his sides and gut indicated the effectiveness of the tickling. After a short time, his struggling became less desperate, and his breaths became louder and shorter.

Even when he was in a more traditional submission hold, Raph always got like this before tapping out too early and making a fuss to hide what had happened. But Mikey suspected he’d be a lot less likely tap out of something as dumb as being tickled. And it seemed he’d been right.

“Enough already, you shit head,” he growled out. But there wasn’t really any bite in his tone.

“I dunno, you seem to be having a good time down there,” Mikey goaded.

Raph tensed at his words, but it seemed to be defensively rather than because his patience had run out. Mikey let up on the tickling and positioned his arms as though he was going to put a choke on him, deciding that embarrassing him any further wasn’t going to help his cause.

“So, you ready to tell me what’s wrong yet?” Mikey asked conversationally. “No one else is here to hear it, you know that.”

“Does it matter? Since when have you ever been able to keep your mouth shut? And don’t try and tell me Leo won’t prod it out of you later.”

“Well, it is true I’ll have to tell him something,” Mikey conceded. “But I have control over how much I say and _how_ it’s said. We’re not trying to humiliate you, we’re just trying to help you be the best ninja you can be, because we all know our lives depend on it.”

Raph remained silent, staring down at the mats for a long time. If he was waiting for Mikey to get bored and go away, he was going to be disappointed. He could be patient if he knew there was going to be a good pay off.

“I _like_ feeling weight on me like this,” Raph began hesitantly. It seemed he wasn’t quite sure how to word his explanation. “Only if it’s someone I know I can trust with the important stuff, though, so it won’t affect me in a fight. Just, I know I shouldn’t be thinking about shit like that during training…”

“Sooo… you walk away so Sensei doesn’t have to see your boner?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just get off me,” Raph grumbled.

“No, no, it’s really a serious question. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page,” Mikey said quickly. But maybe that stab had been a little much. “Why don’t you just tell Leo that? You know he’d think of a way for both of you to get what you want.”

“Are you kidding me? He’d castrate me if he knew that’s what I was thinking about during training.”

Mikey shook his head, the side of his face rubbing against Raph’s as he did so. “I don’t think you give him enough credit. He’d think of something, like, you practice in private with one of us for a bit, then we’ll all sit on you for a while.”

Raph snorted, but seemed to be less tense and defensive now. Mikey had succeeded in his mission, it seemed, but that didn’t mean he had to call the others back any time soon.

“You know what? Let’s just stay like this for a little longer,” Mikey said, shifting his grip from the beginning of a choke to wrapping his arms around his shell and chest. “I think you’ve suffered enough for today,” he joked.

Raph groaned and let his forehead smack against the mat. “Did you forget about the boner part?”

“I don’t mind,” Mikey replied. “I know I’m a shit head sometimes, but if you’re happy to just chill like this, then it’s cool. As long as you’re comfortable.”

Raph was silent for a moment, but eventually chose to only acknowledge the first part of his speech. “Well, at least you admit it.”

Mikey laughed and settled his weight against him again. Now that he thought about it, this was kind of relaxing for him too.

“We can always save the more adventurous stuff for later.”

“Shut up.”

And for once, Mikey did.


End file.
